October was a month filled with God’s grace, both for our church and personally for my wife and I. Each day I am more and more conscious that the Lord does not repay me according to my works, but according to His mercy. When I look at how the church is growing, how my wife is growing, and how our marriage is growing, and when I see how the Lord continually sustains me, I am truly humbled. Who am I to be treated so well?

In the report from August, I mentioned to you all about a young lady that appeared to have been converted. Thanks to the Lord, what appeared to be small sings of a new life have become even more apparent, and it seems that she really is a tree planted by streams of living water, which yields its fruit in its season. Each day the hand of the Almighty upon her is more and more evident. She has never before been in an evangelical context, and she came to Family of Grace Church from a family background in which there was great hostility toward Christianity.

Shortly after her profession of faith, she encountered great difficulties in her family, since in her home they are given to occultism and felt deeply disappointed when a member of their own family declared herself to be a follower of Jesus. There was such a commotion within her family as a result of her conversion that her parents and one of her sisters came one Sunday morning to speak with Nicolas and me, in order for us to explain to them what had happened to their daughter. They did not understand why she did not live the same life that she lived before, going out to “have fun,” but instead now spends her time reading the Bible, praying, and seeking to know Jesus more. Thanks to the Lord, even though they were very mad, we were given the ability to speak with kindness and wisdom, and the Lord brought the conversation to a good end. They even allowed us to explain the Gospel, and they listened quietly! Truly, the Lord still shuts the mouths of the lions!

Together with this young lady, her boyfriend also came to the church. It appears that he also has been saved by the Lord! When he arrived it seemed like he did not understand anything that we were saying to him, and he did not understand what had happened to his girlfriend. He has never been in a church either, other than attending two or three youth group meetings in an extremely charismatic context, from which he left without even the smallest interest in the things of God. But through personal conversation with one of the brothers in the church who spoke to him clearly about the Gospel, he was confronted with the realty of his own soul, and he clung to the arms of Christ.

Something that surprised us was that after having made a profession of faith, both he and the young lady were convinced that they should put their relationship to the side and seek to grow as a man and woman of God. And after that, if it is the will of God, they would begin to think again about getting married. Really it was surprising to hear of their decision because we had not yet even talked to them about their relationship and we had not counseled them in any way to come to that decision. How can we explain this, but as the power of God?